Making America Safe for Foreskins

Is There Life After Birth?

To Pediatrics (11/1/83):
Robert L. Baker, writing in the November 1979 issue of
Sexual Medicine Today, estimated that at least 229 babies
die as a result of circumcision in the U.S. every year.
How many almost die?

To the American Academy of Pediatrics (2/6/85):
I mailed a letter to the American Academy of
Pediatrics October 30, asking why the list of infant
circumcision risks in the Academy's 1975 Report of the Ad
Hoc Task Force on Circumcision does not include the
thoroughly documented risk of death.
Please give me an answer.
[No answer received]

To the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (9/6/86):
Is the American College of Obstetrics and
Gynecology suppressing information about circumcision
that would make parents decide against it?
I wrote to the American College of Obstetrics and
Gynecology February 6, 1985, asking why its pamphlet,
Circumcision: A Personal Choice, which states that it "gives
information on circumcision to help you make an informed
choice before you have your baby," does not contain the one
piece of information that would influence the choice of most
parents perhaps more than all other considerations combined:
the thoroughly documented risk of death.
I received no reply.
I wrote again August 6, 1986, asking the same question.
I have received no reply.
I ask again: Why does the American College of
Obstetrics and Gynecology's pamphlet, Circumcision: A
Personal Choice, not mention the risk of death?
Your silence is chilling.
Please give me an answer.
(Are you aware that the National Organization of
Circumcision Information Resource Centers does not even list
the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology as a
source of information?)
[No answer received]

To Playboy (5/17/83):
If a doctor knows that there is no valid medical
reason to circumcise a baby, and if he knows that there is
the risk, however slight, that if he circumcises the baby
anyway the baby could die as a result, and he does
circumcise the baby and the baby does die as a result --
isn't that murder?